Scottish LibDems hell bent on oblivion.

Michael Moore, LibDem Secretary of State for Scotland, says that two referenda are required for Scottish independence. Here’s the BBC report.

If we have an advisory referendum set up by the Scottish government I think there is a strong likelihood, and it is certainly my personal view, that you would need a second referendum on the formalities of agreeing what has been sorted out between the governments.”Mr Moore also said he would not be including any of the powers demanded by Mr Salmond in the new Scotland Bill

Alan Trench agrees on the specific constitutional referendum issue but raises the astonishing folly of the Scotland Bill element of the statement.

….The second is a piece of folly, however. It’s his statement (reported in a single line in the BBC News story) he doesn’t propose to amend the Scotland bill as requested by the Scottish Government (though what amendments exactly it wants to see aren’t wholly clear)….. This position is absurd, constitutionally and politically. A bill that isn’t so amended will fail to secure the legislative consent of the Scottish Parliament. Either the bill therefore goes nowhere, since it can’t get Holyrood’s consent, or the Secretary of State intends that the bill be passed by Westminster and brought into force despite Holyrood’s refusal. That means tearing up the Sewel convention – and the constitutional underpinning of a system of devolved government. One couldn’t calculate a move more likely to play into the hands of those wanting to see Scotland become a separate state.

A spokesman for the First Minister said Mr Moore`s comments were “wittering and irrelevant nonsense”, and said he “comes up with a new off-the-cuff position every time he talks about it”. He added: “Last month he said he was totally against Westminster bringing forward a referendum. It was, rightly, entirely a matter for the Scottish Government, and in the last Holyrood parliament his party was totally against having any referendum.